Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Roman Abramovich Spends Big for St. Barts Beach House


BUYER: Roman Abramovich
LOCATION: Gouverneur Bay, Saint Barthélemy, French West Indies
PRICE: €61,200,000
SIZE: 70 acres

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Listen children, Your Mama knows we're a little late to the publicity fair on this one but since Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa are just around the corner and all the international jet-setters are preparing to pack their Louis Vuittons for their annual holiday trip to super-swank St. Barts, Your Mama thought it might be fun to have a(nother) little look-see at the St. Barts estate Russian multi-billionaire Roman Abramovich recently snatched up for a reported €61,200,000. A quick consult with Your Mama's currency conversion contraption indicates that amounts to a booty clenching $92,106,000 at today's rates. The figure reportedly beats the previous record for highest amount ever paid for a property in the Caribbean by three times.

The property, known as the Gouverneur Bay Estate, occupies land formerly owned by David Rockefeller and was sold by e-commerce software tycoon Jeet Singh. Designed like a Balinese village, the 70-acre estate spills gently down a lushly landscaped hillside and stretches approximately 1,000 feet along Gouverneur's Beach, one of St. Barts' better known nood beaches. Not topless, chickens, nood as in birthday suit nekkid with all the naughty bits on display.

The property's former owner, Mister Singh, apparently leased the property out to wildly rich winter time sun seekers because Your Mama managed to dig us up an old rental listing for the property which shows it went for $100,000 in the off-season and $150,000 during the high-season. That's per week puppies, per week.

Anyhoo, according to the rental listing, each of the many Balinese style bungalows are constructed of tropical timbers such as Guyanese teak, mahogany and green heart. The dee-luxe but barefoot casual estate includes 4 Balinese-style bedroom bungalows and a total of 8.5 poopers. The owner's suite, well situated for soo-preem privacy, encompasses a bay view bedroom with a wrap around veranda, a behemoth–and air-conditioned–bathroom with a free standing soaking tub, a walk in closet commodious enough keep all the beaded and and flowy tunics and strappy sandals Mister Abramovich's ladee-friend Daria Zhukova can buy, an outdoor shower for two, and a private swimming pool with a rock waterfall and several boulders sitting right in the middle of the damn thing.

In addition to the bedroom bungalows, the estate includes a catering kitchen for large parties, a main living room salon called the Lizard Lounge, and an entertainment complex that includes a swimming pool with in-water speakers and a swim-up bar, a fully equipped kitchen and bbq area, an outdoor dining room, a couple of shade providing pavilions, and an outdoor stage and cinema for watching movies under the stars. There are also two Har-Tru tennis courts for the sporty types as well as a caretaker's cottage and an area for garages and mechanical equipment.

According to a snippet in Page Six of today's New York Post, Mister Abramovich and his very female companion Daria–who is preggers with the billionaire's sixth baby–are planning a holiday party for as many as 250 people. The only question, apparently, is whether they'll be hosting the shindig at one of the islands finer restaurants or at his new estate overlooking Gouverneur's Beach. Your Mama knows which location we'd prefer, but alas, we'd bet our long bodied bitches Linda and Beverly we won't be invited to the billionaire's beach bash.

Mister Abramovich is certainly no stranger to international real estate gossip columns or lavish living. In addition to his house in Moscow–about which Your Mama knows not a thing–he is in the process of combining two townhouses into one 30,000 square foot beast of a mansion on London's Lowndes Square in the natty and nabobish Knightsbridge area. Plans show the house will have 5 stories above ground, another three below, 8 family and guest bedrooms, an indoor swimming pool and four flats for staff above the multi-car garage.

The jet-setting oligarch also owns the Chateau de la Croë, a Cap d'Antibes villa once owned by the exiled Duke of Windsor as well as two high-priced properties in Snowmass Village, CO. First he dumped millions on a 5,600 square foot ski-in, ski-out house and a few months later dropped and staggering $36,375,000 for Wildcat Ridge, a 200-acre ranch with a 14,300 square foot, 11 bedroom residence that he bought lock, stock and fully furnished including a leather and mink chair that we're pretty sure the peeps at PETA would no likey.

Based on previous reports, Your Mama has learned the big living billionaire flies around the world on a custom fitted Boeing 767 wide-body jet and bobs along in international waters on one of his four boats. There is the 163-foot Sussurro, the Ecstasea, which stretches 282 feet, and the Pelorus, a mind-bending 377 feet long. However, it's his recently completed but yet to be delivered Blohm & Voss built boat, the Eclipse, that really takes the yachting cake and makes Your Mama pee in our pants a little from financial flabbergast. Mister Abramovich's new boat, a ship really, is rumored to measure a staggering 557 feet long and feature bullet proof glass, a personal submarine, a swimming pool, a sci-fi sounding anti-photo laser shield, a crew of 70, and not one but two helipads. That's certainly excessive by any standard, but let's be honest butter beans, if you're a wildly rich Russian oligarch with a boat almost twice as long as a damn football field, it behooves you to have someplace to land your helicopter and someplace to land the helicopter of a visiting bidness baron.

Mister Abramovich's profligate ways don't stop with his hundreds of millions spent real estate, boats and planes. He's also a prolific contemporary art collector who famously spent well over $100,000,000 in two days on two pieces of art in May of 2008 when his capacious wealth was at its very apex. One day he forked over $33,641,000 for Lucian Freud's Benefits Supervisor Sleeping and $86,281,000 for Francis Bacon's mythological minded Triptych, 1976.

Your Mama gets breathless and goes weak in the knees when we think of the hundreds of millions of dollars Mister Abramovich spends on his insanely luxuriously lifestyle and we require a nerve pill and a dark padded room when we ponder the yearly costs for the upkeep, staffing and taxes of all his many toys and homes. While he's certainly free to spend his billions any way he sees fit, Your Mama can't help but think of all the people who have so little at holiday times and genuinely hope Mister Abramovich uses a wee sliver of his titanic cash reserves to spread a little bit of his private cornucopia around to those far less privileged than he and his soon to be baby momma. We also hope he invites us for a short cruise on the Eclipse, but we'd surely suffocate holding our breath for that invitation.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

At least it is better than spending your money on drugs and sex.................we maybe just drugs.

StPaulSnowman said...

Beautiful to behold but I cannot believe that there isn't a colossal mosquito problem here...........that's what I have to keep believing.

Anonymous said...

A leather and mink chair? Hell, I'd be afraid the damn thing might get up and start running with me straddled bareback (all the while clutching a gin and tonic.) Mama, there's that football field reference again. I'm gleefully shocked and simultaneously awed. My word verification is "nyet."

Grrrowler said...

FYI, his ex-wife reportedly got Pelorus in the divorce settlement. The holding company that is the owner of record has changed and all indicators point to the ex Mrs. Abromovish. Pelorus also has two helipads (one with direct access to the owner's suite) so it makes sense to have two on the new larger boat.

Ecstasea has engineering problems (read: major vibrations at high speed) and he doesn't use it very often. Sussurro seems to be used to move between Med ports for day trips and as a diving platform (which is what it was originally intended for). Incidentally, Sussurro and Pelorus were both commissioned by the same middle-eastern client and bought by Roman near or just after completion. Both have very similar interiors (by the same designer). The interior or Eclipse is done by the same designer so it might be similar (think Caribbean beach house). Here's a more recent pic of Eclipse on seat trials: http://cdn.fotocommunity.com/Motorschiffe/Motoryachten/Eclipse-a18550202.jpg

Anonymous said...

As a former Governor of Chukotka (that's just a quick skip, swim or a hand wave to Sarah Palin's house), I think he is quite acquainted with all sorts of ways to fight mosquitoes, so I would not worry here. Regarding the money... well, virtually no money coffers can sustain that kind of spending forever. That said, I think Mr. Abramovich is trying to experience everything he can while he is still alive or the money making business is not taken away from him by the Russian government or maybe even by some of his partners. Plus, he gets to leave his heirs all sort of luxury inheritance, and not money in the bank or business assets, both of which can be easily taken away. He knows that pretty well... how do you think he "earned" that kind of money in just a few years?

Anonymous said...

Are all the beaches in St. Barth's public? If so, he will still have to endure random nekkid sunbathers even in his secluded location. Some of them may even be a little curious about the property or eager to find a bathroom - LOL! My verification word is "nishtyak"

Baroness said...

Sigh, pass the nerve pills. It's sort of a weird mix of thrill and horror when you see people living on such an insane scale. FOUR luxury yachts? Just imagine how jaded it might make a person.

I rty and be all high and mighty thinking i'd never be so loud and vulgar with money..but then i look at that pool, and think of the aesthetic moments that sort of money allows.. damn.

OTOH, people don't make that sort of insane munnie without a lot of people caught up in the gears, and lots of powerful enemies. Roman here has to have a personal army on him at all times, Russians don't mess around. It's a James Bond life, but having loads of people with money wanting to off you mustn't be so hot either.

His wifey Dasha is Russian born, but grew up a California girl. And her husband's money made her an art world power player overnight in a huge way. By all accounts she's quite kind and gracious though, unpretentious and nice.

Anonymous said...

I love Abramovich.
He would be awesome to hang out with.
This dude spends money like it is going out of style.

He is the definition of

Ball till you fall.

Anonymous said...

Baroness, He is not married. His girlfriend, Dasha comes from a very wealthy family and has her own money.

Anonymous said...

Of course this amount of money can be quite disturbing, but, as Mama said, could you imagine how many people must be employed to maintain all this? And how many companies can pay their employees because of his spending on cars, yachts, houses decorum, tablewears, high priced clothes and accessories, food etc.?
Most of them are produced in countries where there is a law for the employee wellness and a minimum salary!
Not like H&M or Polo RL made in Philippina Macao or China, with low paid people (even child!)...
I whish I would be rich enough to buy well-produced-only items!

Anonymous said...

"Dasha comes from a very wealthy family and has her own money."

Her "own" money?! It's more like Dasha has her family money not her own.

I love it when wealthy children think they have their "own" money.

Anonymous said...

"His wifey Dasha is Russian born, but grew up a California girl. And her husband's money made her an art world power player overnight in a huge way."

She was into art long before meeting Roman & her own Father is a Billionaire. I'd also like to add that there is absolutely nothing "California girl" about her other than her accent occasionally.

Stewie said...

Beautiful place, I especially like the swimming pool

Langtry said...

I've been to Anse Du Gouverneurs, and it's the definition of exquisite. Roman Abromovitch is one lucky bastard.

Administrator said...

Several pictures and information of Abramovich' yachts.

superyachtfan.blogspot.com